Aras®, the next leader in enterprise Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) software, today announced a strategic reseller agreement
with IBM’s Watson IoT business. Under the agreement, IBM will resell the
Aras Innovator PLM suite on a subscription basis both as a complement to
IBM’s Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution and as a stand-alone
PLM solution.

Enabling Digital Transformation

As businesses look to transform business models using IoT, complexity
continues to increase exponentially due to the merging of software, data
services and online connectivity. To deliver dependable IoT implementations
companies are undertaking a digital transformation involving product
development, manufacturing and supply chain process automation, which is
profoundly impacting the business of engineering.

“Global companies need a new and better way to integrate the complex
hardware and software processes necessary to develop the smart, connected
products of the future,” said Dibbe Edwards, VP, Watson IoT Continuous
Engineering Offering Management & Delivery. “We’re excited to get back
into the PLM market by partnering with Aras to help customers drive IoT
enablement and realize a Digital Thread across disciplines and throughout
the lifecycle.”

Attaining the Digital Twin & Digital Thread

By linking the Agile software development processes in ALM with the rest of
the organization’s engineering processes in PLM, companies create a
delivery pipeline of synchronized hardware, electronics and software
configurations. The offerings from IBM and Aras can enable a system-level
Digital Twin across the lifecycle with a resulting Digital Thread as the
product configuration evolves.

“Today’s complicated product designs make it necessary to have a Digital
Twin for configuration context that includes mechanical, electronics and
software to interpret IoT data and determine compatibility for in-field
updates,” said Peter Schroer, CEO of Aras. “At the same time, Digital
Thread traceability is critical to understand design decisions and intent
in warranty, regulatory and liability situations.”


Cross Discipline Collaboration, Coordination and Compliance


Together IBM and Aras can help companies with the collaboration,
coordination and compliance necessary to develop tomorrow’s next generation
products today. Their offerings provide the basis for:

  • Continuous innovation through the IoT lifecycle
  • Traceability across configurations of hardware & embedded software
  • Ongoing product enhancement with design optimization based on IoTfeedback loops

The collaboration means enterprises have an industry leading alternative
that:

  • Covers the entire scope for global product development, manufacturingand support
  • Embraces a truly open approach
  • Enables a rapid, iterative deployment approach
  • Connects to a wide variety of CAD, PDM, ERP and other enterprisesystems
  • Can replace an existing PLM environment or overlay on top for newcapabilities
  • Upgrades easily even when heavily customized
  • Runs on premise, in the cloud or hybrid
  • Minimizes disruption, cost and risk

For additional details ask your IBM Watson IoT sales representatives or
visit

https://jazz.net/products/aras-plm-solution/

About IBM Watson IoT

Within two years, we believe the Internet of Things will be the single
greatest source of data on the planet, generated by billions of
interconnected sensors and devices embedded into the world’s physical
systems. IBM’s Watson technologies use machine learning and natural
language processing to reveal insights from this data, helping to transform
businesses, lives and societies. IBM is an established leader in the
Internet of Things with more than 6,000 client engagements in 170
countries, a growing ecosystem of over 1,400 partners and more 750 IoT
patents. For more information about IBM Watson IoT, please visit:

www.ibm.com/iot

About Aras

We offer the best Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for global
businesses with complex products and processes. Resilient PLM platform
technology makes Aras more scalable, flexible and upgradable for the
world’s largest organizations, and a full set of applications provide
complete functionality for the business of engineering. Customers include
Airbus, GE, Hitachi, Honda, Huntington Ingalls, Kawasaki, Motorola and
XEROX. Aras is privately held with global headquarters in Andover, Mass.
More at www.aras.com and
Twitter @aras_plm

Aras Press Contact

Kylie Reardon

Corporate Communications Manager

[email protected]